Encouraging Social Apartment Living

For many New Yorkers, it’s typical that they don’t know their neighbors, let alone talk to them. However, the New York Times reported that some buildings are changing that with organized social events, parties and even architecture which encourages interaction.

The Times writes:

How buildings become social is something of a mystery. To be sure, there are buildings that are marketed as having a slate of organized social events and ample opportunities to meet people. The Gotham Organization offers wine tastings and sushi-and-sake parties at two of its luxury Midtown rentals, the Atlas New York and the Nicole. This summer at the Atlas, it sponsored a concert series with an open bar. All residents of Gotham buildings were invited.

…Both brokers and longtime apartment dwellers agree that fantastic common space can have a profound influence on the social temperature of a building. On a recent hot and sweaty Wednesday evening — the kind of summer night when most New Yorkers were eager to retreat inside their four (with any luck air-conditioned) walls — about 20 residents of 350 Bleecker Street gathered in the building’s courtyard for a barbecue.